If you are planning on a real estate business, then one of the most important things for you becomes the buyers’ list. The buyers’ list is basically a list of companies or individuals who are interested in buying homes. Your intention here is to buy homes at cheaper prices and then sell them off to interested parties. However, for that, you need to know who these parties are that are looking for properties to buy. In short, you need the buyers’ list.

All real estate businesspeople keep a ready reckoner list of buyers. This could be maintained in a diary in their office or in a file where they actually retain forms from people who have evinced interest in buying properties or it could be simple spreadsheet on their computer. Nowadays, there are several software applications that help real estate businesspeople to build these buyers’ list easily. Whatever be the manner of building the list, it is the raw material that is tapped into when these entrepreneurs stumble upon a property to sell for a profit.

Why does building the buyers’ list become important? The most obvious reason is that you need to have someplace to look for your buyers. This list is that place. You can classify the entries on this list according to various descriptive categories of your own, such as the A-list parties who have ready money to buy properties they like, the B-list parties who are eligible for loans but don’t have the money with them yet, the C-list parties who have a good shot to become eligible for loans but haven’t made their applications yet and the D-list parties who cannot raise the money to buy your properties and hence can be ignored. Making such categories helps you in finding the exact people who might become the eventual buyers of your property. Without wasting much time, you can directly zero in on the people who may be the best prospects for your real estate business.

Now, think of the situation in which you are working without a list. This becomes totally unsystematic and random. You don’t have a list. So, you have to search for suitable buyers every time you get a property on your hands. When you do that, you are wasting time, and since you don’t have any best prospects sorted out already, you might end up selling your property to a weak buyer for a lower price than you would have got had you tapped into a systematically categorized list.

Thus, it is not wrong to say that the most earnest real estate business people are those who maintain a proper list of willing prospects who may buy their properties and then work accordingly.

Having a ready buyers’ list also makes you more sincere about the business. It reduces your effort when you have properties to sell and helps you get a better price. You may further simplify matters by classifying people according to their purpose in buying properties—those who are looking to live in it, those who are looking to resell, etc. Such information is vital for you when you are planning to rise above the competition in your real estate business and get the winning edge over your competitors.

REIA meetings take place in different cities throughout the country and every city has its own association. The purpose of these meetings is to develop a network or chain of real estate investors. They guide the ones that enter the market and learn from those who are already in the market and have a good grip of it.
Not only do people learn and enjoy these REIA meetings but these meetings give people a chance to interact and get to know more investors. These meetings have now become a platform for the networking of investors. These meetings serve the purpose of expanding the real estate circle. Just a few years back, real estate was a small market and people were scared to enter it or try their luck here. But now it is one of the biggest markets with many people investing their money on land with the intention of earning some extra income.
Investors can join in as guests or take membership of REIA, as these associations provide a wide forum to all the investors to introduce their products and get to know about others. These meetings are usually held at the beginning of every month and they update investors about the market and its conditions in previous months. They also forecast about the coming month and how the market will be. No matter if an investor is new in the market or is a millionaire, everyone learns more and more through these meetings.
Other topics that these meetings shed a light on include; learning how to become financially independent as an investor. These meetings provide investors how to retain their wealth once they start making it and keep the cash cycle rolling. When an investor makes a gain he needs to reinvest and all these techniques are taught in these meetings, for those who don’t have much information about real estate.
Real estate has a wide scope and these meetings teach how one can explore other avenues and how they can make more profits by entering these avenues one at a time. The best part about being a member at an association is that one gets to be in the midst of ambitious and proactive people who form a society of real estate investors. Not only investors get to learn through these meetings but they also get a chance to share their experiences with others and get their perspective on it.

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Apartment properties are preferred by many investors as they bring in passive income (and its my favorite type of deals to do!). When buying apartments, it is normally a longer-term investment, but you need to make sure your money is used in the right place. Below are a few factors that may help in deciding which property to invest in.

Buy an affordable property
One should always choose a rental property they will be able to afford; it’s not just about being able to buy a piece of land. Investors calculate that the rent will be able to payoff the debt of the loan and provide extra money at the end of the month for their own pockets. Until a unit is rented out, the owner (that’s you!) has to pay the mortgage, so he or she should have enough monthly income to settle the payment. Apart from the mortgage, other expenses also need to be fished out from the owner’s pocket. One should have enough funds raised so an investment does not end up in a loss.

Neighborhood and surroundings
A good neighborhood ensures how soon a property goes on rent. As an investor, one should purchase a property in a safe and reputable neighborhood. Neighborhoods are generally categorized into A, A-,B+, B, B-, etc. properties   Properties near colleges go on rent easily, as every season students enroll and they look for a cheap residence. The surroundings of the property should have all the basic amenities like schools, parks, shopping malls, supermarkets and so on. A property that is far away from these basic requirements might not be able to hold tenants for long.

Get the information
Get know-how of the area, and before signing the deal, visit the area for a few days and at different times. This way one will get to know about the area and the crowd that lives there. Getting information from those who already live there will be a deciding factor in the purchase.

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REIA meetings take place in different cities throughout the country and every city has its own association. The purpose of these meetings is to develop a network or chain of real estate investors. They guide the ones that enter the market and learn from those who are already in the market and have a good grip of it.
Not only do people learn and enjoy these REIA meetings but these meetings give people a chance to interact and get to know more investors. These meetings have now become a platform for the networking of investors. These meetings serve the purpose of expanding the real estate circle. Just a few years back, real estate was a small market and people were scared to enter it or try their luck here. But now it is one of the biggest markets with many people investing their money on land with the intention of earning some extra income.
Investors can join in as guests or take membership of REIA, as these associations provide a wide forum to all the investors to introduce their products and get to know about others. These meetings are usually held at the beginning of every month and they update investors about the market and its conditions in previous months. They also forecast about the coming month and how the market will be. No matter if an investor is new in the market or is a millionaire, everyone learns more and more through these meetings.
Other topics that these meetings shed a light on include; learning how to become financially independent as an investor. These meetings provide investors how to retain their wealth once they start making it and keep the cash cycle rolling. When an investor makes a gain he needs to reinvest and all these techniques are taught in these meetings, for those who don’t have much information about real estate.
Real estate has a wide scope and these meetings teach how one can explore other avenues and how they can make more profits by entering these avenues one at a time. The best part about being a member at an association is that one gets to be in the midst of ambitious and proactive people who form a society of real estate investors. Not only investors get to learn through these meetings but they also get a chance to share their experiences with others and get their perspective on it.

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Technorati Tags: Apartment Investing, Dave Lindahl, David Lindahl, multi family, property investing, real estate education, Real estate investing

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Click here for more information on the Apartment House Riches event in September!

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Delaying things can sometimes be a smart move. For example, orchestrated delays are an artful part of negotiating. But when it comes to managing your property’s day-to-day operations, although there are some things you can put off, there are others that you need to take care of ASAP. Keeping a constant watch on these will keep your investment at peak performance.

Lets look at 3 core essentials you must stay on top of and should never let slide, even for a day.

1. Occupancy.
Units that are filled put money in your pocket. Empty units take money out. Priority #1 for your management company is to fill up your property. Lost income from an empty unit is never recovered. If your occupancy level is below the market average, find out why. There can be any number of reasons tenants are moving out and others are not moving in, such as too much deferred maintenance. Whatever the culprit, fix it.

2. Attitude.
Once your property is filled up, priority becomes keeping it full. And more often than not, you’ll find the key to this is all about having the right attitude. Every member of your management team has to have a “can do” attitude; otherwise you end fruitlessly spending your time managing the manager and trying to turnaround poor attitudes. Find people who are inherently go-getters and ruthlessly dump those who are not.

3. Collections
Collections are always a high priority. Rental income puts the “cash” in cash flow. You can expect a few outstanding rents at the start of the month, but your management company should have all rent collected long before the next rental payment is due. Rents at go uncollected for more than 30 days are likely to never get collected.

The best way to handle this is to have a reporting plan in place that ensures nothing slips through the cracks. A “Monday Morning” report from your management company reminds them that your eyes are on their performance. The report includes current occupancy, projected occupancy, rent collected and delinquent rents.

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Everyone at RE Mentor would like to take a quick moment to thank & think about all of those who have dedicated their lives to help us better our own:

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Going deep into debt is generally considered a bad thing. People don’t like the idea of being at the mercy of a creditor, whether it’s Ebenezer Scrooge, MasterCard, or their neighborhood banker.

Fear of debt causes some investors to pay 100% cash for properties, which is a lousy way to leverage their money. Owning a building with zero debt (no mortgage) does not give you the best return on equity. Yes, your cash flow is great, but look at how much you had to invest to generate that cash flow.

Let’s say your Aunt Nellie left you $1 million. You could buy a $1 million apartment building with 6 units and pay all cash. If the units each generate $1,000 a month in rent, you’re $1 million gets you $6,000 a month.

However, if you split the $1 million into the down payments on five 6-flat apartment buildings (30 units total), your $1 million gets you $30,000 a month in rental income. You have mortgages now, of course, but you control five times the equity. Which is why I say, don’t just tell me what your cash flow alone is. Rather, tell me by how much cash flow you generate compared to how much you invested.

Effectively leveraging your cash and managing your debt gets you a higher ROE (Return On Equity). Going into debt can be a very good thing. In fact, it’s how you get ultra rich.

Choose your lenders as carefully as you choose your properties. Here are 5 major money sources:

Local Banks: Neighborhood lenders generally have shorter terms and higher interest rates. They like to keep their loans close to home and work with people they know, thus you can build long-term relationships. When you need money to rehab, use a local bank.

National Lenders: The big-name banks tend not to hold the loan. Rather, they sell it on the secondary market. Use a national lender when you have a straightforward deal that does not require creative financing.

Conduit Lenders: When you get into the big leagues and want to borrow millions of dollars, you can approach Wall Street. Firms like Citigroup pool their loans into mortgage-backed securities that they sell on the open market. Other mega lenders include insurance companies and pension funds.

Private Investors: If you’re just starting out, your most viable path will be to partner with private investors. You can quickly get the down payment or even enough funds to pay 100% cash. A student of mine went to his first local investment club and within a week had $250,000 in funds committed from private investors.

Friends and Family: Finally, although you can’t choose your relatives you can choose whether or not to borrow money from them. Just remember that any dysfunctional relationships your family may possess will likely be put on steroids when money is involved. And perhaps nothing ruins a friendship faster than borrowing money.

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